Insurance Policy
by MelodiousVengeance
Summary: "It was my mother's. Consider it our Insurance Policy." Nathan attempts to reassure Audrey. Set near the end of 3x12.


**A/N: Welp, you guessed it, here's another Naudrey fic from Vengeance. I have no idea where this stuff is coming from, but I hope I can keep it up.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Haven.**

Audrey's eyes kept moving to the sky, waiting to see the first sign of the falling stars that would crash and bring her whole world down with them. She knew it wasn't actually supposed to start for a while, however, with her luck, Audrey wouldn't be surprised if it started early.

A slight humourless laughed passed her lips at the thought.

It all felt too soon. She wasn't ready to go; she had hardly had time to really live. There were so many things she hadn't had the chance to do. Sure, Audrey Parker, the real one, had done so much, and Audrey had her memories, but it wasn't the same. That very point had been proven tonight when she had danced with Nathan. She had been the instigator, she had been the one to ask him, but when they finally got to the dance floor, she blanked. She was suddenly unsure of what she was doing, a very uncommon feeling for her. She was going off of what she had seen in movies, and she felt like an idiot when Nathan took her hand and corrected their position. If she had been the blushing type, she would have looked like a tomato.

"Are you ok?" Nathan asked, cutting the engine as he pulled into the Grey Gull parking lot. He was looking at her with his concern clear on his face. It was still odd to see those emotions so plainly there. Nathan was the type who chose to keep his emotion on the inside, he rarely allowed them to push through and show on his face, unless he was with her. When it was just the two of them, it was like there were no secrets, no matter if it was just what emotions they were feeling.

"I'm not ready to go away," she said looking down. She couldn't stand to look him in the face; the hurt was always clearly there when she talked about when she would disappear. Though, she knew from experience that the look would soon be replaced with one of determination, he would then declare that she wasn't going anywhere.

As if on cue she felt the warm touch of Nathan's hands on either side of her face, his eyes boring into hers, as if forcing her to listen and believe him when he spoke. "You are _not _going anywhere. It's going to get worked out. I am not losing you." His voice was almost a growl when he spoke and Audrey found herself stunned by the raw emotion that mixed into it.

Audrey always found herself wanting to believe Nathan whenever he spoke those words; he spoke them a hundred times. This time however, she trusted that he was right. He spoke with such conviction that Audrey wasn't even sure she could even begin to argue. It gave her hope, hope that she may really be able to keep herself out of the barn.

"I don't want to lose you either. I don't want to forget, not you, not anyone," she told him smoothly. It wasn't even the fact that she wouldn't get to see all the people she cared about for twenty seven years that scared her. What scared her most was that when she returned, she would forget. She wouldn't remember being Audrey; she wouldn't remember having a son, her friends all forgotten. Nathan long forgotten. She'd be nothing but a hollow shell with someone else's memories.

Audrey followed Nathan's movements as he removed his hands from her face. She made to move towards the car door, thinking Nathan was now done with the raw emotions, but she was stopped when his hand took hold of hers.

He used his grip on her hand to pull her closer to him so that his forehead rested on hers in an intimate moment. "You aren't losing or forgetting anyone. Especially not me," he told her adamantly, as he held his hand close to her chest. Confused she looked down, having lost track of his movements once he had pressed his forehead to hers. She hadn't even noticed he had let go of her hand, which was now resting on his denim clad thigh.

In the darkness of the truck, it was hard for Audrey to see that Nathan was holding something at first. She narrowed her eyes a little and finally realized that a thick silver chain rose from the space between his forefinger and his thumb. She knew this chain, she saw it every day. It was the one Nathan always wore. She hasn't even noticed he had removed the chain and fastened it around her own neck.

How did he do that?

"Nathan," Audrey all but whispered when she watched as he removed his hand to allow the ring at the end to dangle, her own hands shooting up to catch his in as he pulled away. She removed her eyes from the ring to look at their joined hands where Nathan had knitted his fingers with hers. "What are you-" she wasn't sure how to finish the sentence, she wasn't even sure that was how she had wanted to start it.

She looked up then to search his face for answers, though there were none there to find. He gave a slight smile and pressed his lips to her forehead. "It was my mother's. Consider it our insurance policy," he told her, she immediately knew he was referring to what Jordan had said about Ginger only days before.

Audrey was stunned into silence by the fact that the ring now pressed against her chest was Nathan's mothers. He almost never spoke of her, and she never really asked, always considering it to be a touchy subject, but she knew she was important to him. Just like Audrey was. For a while she couldn't speak, it didn't feel like there were any words that could possibly be the right ones.

"Thank you," she finally managed no other words able to pass her lips. Nathan said nothing, merely gave a genuine smile and leaned over to kiss her lips lightly and tuck the ring inside her shirt, obscuring it from view. It would be their secret.

He then pulled back and removed the keys from the ignition and shifted to sit facing straight. "Better get inside before Duke starts thinking you've already disappeared," Nathan said trying to lighten the mood. She knew what he was doing, attempting to lessen the impact of her possible fate with humour, and it worked. Audrey nodded in agreement and turned to open her door, her hand discreetly pressed against her shirt, the solid form of the ring reassuring her.


End file.
